Loaded division leaves work to do
Eight things we know about the East
Over the past two weeks, Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry rediscovered his game. A shaky penalty kill almost completely flipped the script. And the once injury-ravaged blue line might soon have too many lefties.
Those are just some of the things to like about the way the Penguins are playing lately, posting a 5-2 record over their past seven games.
And yet, even as the Penguins begin to hit their stride in a number of critical areas, they’re still looking up in the standings. Through 18 games, they’re 10-7-1 for a total of 21 points. That’s good enough for fifth place out of eight teams, whether you go by raw points or points percentage.
The Penguins took Friday off before a two-game series on Long Island. Let’s take a step back from the club and instead look at the East Division as a whole. With about a third of the season in the books, here are eight things we’ve learned about the eight-team division. 1.
It’s a parity-packed gauntlet, with five teams fighting for four playoff spots
When the NHL restructured the divisions, it lumped together four of the top seven teams based on points percentage from the 2019-20 season: Bruins, Capitals, Flyers and Penguins. The team not included in that mix was the Islanders, who were the best of the bunch in the postseason, reaching the Eastern Conference final.
Sure enough, those five teams have begun to rise to the top.
Given the pandemic uncertainty, points percentage might end up being the way the league decides which teams make the playoffs. As of Friday afternoon, the division was led by the Bruins (70.6%), followed by the Flyers (65.6%), Capitals (63.2%), Islanders (60.5%) and Penguins (58.3%).
The Flyers were the NHL’s hottest team when the league paused the 2019-20 season. With many of Ron Hextall’s draft picks coming of age, they’re a young team on the rise that should be a contender for a while. In Washington, coach Peter
Laviolette is new and so are some of the systems he has implemented, but the same aging core and elite power play is looking to overshadow shaky goaltending. The Islanders are playing to their identity as a neutral-zone-clogging defensive menace that has allowed the third-fewest goals per game (2.32).
But, any discussion of the East should start in Boston … 2.
The Bruins are the team to beat The Bruins joined a group of mostly Metro teams and immediately became the favorite in Vegas to win the division. So far, they still look like a good bet.
The Bruins boast an elite top line that features Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak. They have the reigning Jack Adams Award-winner behind the bench in Bruce Cassidy. Two solid goalies in Tuukka Rask and Jaroslav Halak are playing behind a team that’s structured defensively. The result has been the six-fewest goals-against per
game this year (2.53). And they’re excellent on both sides of the special teams battle, with the second-best penalty kill and the sixth-best power play.
If there is a weakness to the Bruins, it’s their blue line, which lost Torey Krug and Zdeno Chara this past offseason. But that could easily be addressed, considering they still have all of their 2021 draft capital, including a first-round pick.
The Penguins are 0-1-1 against the Bruins with six more meetings scheduled. 3.
Players are well-aware of how competitive it is
Following last weekend’s game against the Islanders, Penguins defenseman Mike Matheson said the win was big because it pulled the club into fourth place at the time, with a game in hand over the Islanders. That quote stuck out. He knew precisely where the Penguins stood, even the game-in-hand part.
Players know it’s going to be tough to make the playoffs. Even 18 games in,
they’re keeping a close eye on the standings, too.
4.
The Penguins record might be better than it seems
The Penguins might be looking up at the Capitals and Islanders in the standings. But head-to-head, they’ve been on top more often than not on the scoreboard. They’re 4-2 against the Capitals and 3-1 against the Islanders.
So why are they fifth in the standings then? Part of it is they have yet to play a single game against the basement dwellers such as the Devils and Sabres. Racking up points on the back stretch could help catapult the Penguins into the playoffs.
5.
Are the Devils frisky?
Let’s counter that last point by saying maybe, just maybe, the Devils aren’t the pushover everyone assumed they would be.
With outstanding goaltending from
Mackenzie Blackwood (.932 save percentage, 2.34 goals-against average) and several high-end draft picks in front of him, the Devils (.533 points percentage) are the sixth East Division team with a points percentage above .500.
6. Regulation wins are even more valuable
Because of the structure of the schedule, any point that isn’t earned is going directly to an in -division team. Same with overtime, loser points, which is where the Penguins aren’t helping themselves.
Just four of the Penguins’ 10 wins have come in regulation. The three loser points the Capitals picked up against the Penguins represent the exact margin between Washington’s 24 points and Pittsburgh’s 21.
7. COVID cancellations could become significant
On 93.7 The Fan, new
Penguins president of hockey operations Brian Burke recently said he doesn’t believe the NHL will reach its goal of a 56-game season. Already, the schedule is so jam-packed that if another club or two has an outbreak, where will they squeeze in postponed games?
This could create controversy. What happens if the Islanders, for example, get in all eight of their games against bottom-feeding Buffalo but the Penguins don’t? 8.
Get ready for the grind
Sixteen games in 28 days in March. Fifteen games in 29 days in April. And, finally, five games in eight days in May. The off day Friday was one of the few when the Penguins didn’t hit the ice.
In March, the longest layoff between games is just two days. The longest layoff, in general, is three days in April. Staying healthy is even more critical. A two-week injury easily could cost a player eight games.